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This Spring we replaced the ceiling fans on our back porch. One afternoon, I noticed a bee crawling into the holes of the pull chain fob. It kind of looked like a honeybee and I thought it might be out grazing as some bees and wasps do. I thought no more about it.

A couple days later my husband and I was on the back-porch and I mentioned to him about the bee. My husband said, “Well that explains what the mud in the holes are. They were building nest.”

“What mud?” I asked and then looked up saw the fob hole was filled with mud.Both lower chains on both fans have the hole filled with mud. The upper chains don’t have it though, so evidently something about the lower chain fobs was perfect for a nursery.

We left the mud in the holes. We use the chains like normal.
I’m thinking it was Mason Bees that made the mud nurseries.
I suspect one day we’ll go outside and see the mud bored through and HOPEFULLY we’ll probably not see the baby bees.

Has Mason bees ever built a nest in something like this at your home?
Here’s hoping all your bee encounters are friendly ones.
🙂

Hi Lucyannluna
We have bumble bees nesting in our shed. They make quite a bit of saw dust each year. I figure someday we’ll look out and our shed will have folded to the ground like a cartoon picture. lol

I have had Mason bees make homes of the tubes on my wind chimes. I always just let them be. It changes the sound of the chimes of course but I don’t mind them. With the setup of our house in relation to neighbors and the road, I don’t get to sit outside and enjoy them often anyway so the bees are free to use them. I soak the chimes in hot water to clean them out once they’re not using them anymore, and sure enough once they’re cleaned out the bees use them again. 🙂

Hey Charlotte
I agree. Dirt daubers do make a mess, but they are wonderful for helping to control spiders (wasps are too) I never much paid attention to mason bees until this year. I knew some folks had mason bee houses to help them multiply to help with pollination. I’m not fond enough of bees to think about doing that… so far… 😉